Monday, February 14, 2011

Whale Watching at Sea of Cortez

We started our afternoon tour on a catamaran out of Cabo Marina with a Disney tour operator. First thing first, they gave you alcoholic drinks to get you loosen up, chips & salsa to munch on while cruising out of the marina. Seeing other boats and the playful dolphins chasing the wakes was very fun and relaxing.

Not to be missed, we made a brief tour around Playa del Amor (Lover's Beach) and El Arco, where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean at Land's End. The seascape is gorgeous. We did not land on the beach; it would have been nice to claim you had been on a beach that covers two seas (Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean). Well maybe next time.

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Looking at Playa del Amor from Sea of Cortez to the Pacific Ocean.
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The sun was nice, not too overly bearing, and the breeze helped a lot. Not long after, our attentions were totally captured by the whales. Afterall, our goal was to catch a glimpse of the whale. We were in the right season for such activity. The tour was way beyond our expectation. We saw a few whales pretty close, at least couple kinds according to the resident expert onboard, including the Gray whales and the Humpback whale. And they were surprisingly playful. I learned a few words on their various behaviors.

Breaching - propel their bodies up and out of the water and land with a big splash. This one just started to come out of the water.

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Fluking – occur at the end of a deep dive when you see the underside of the tail flukes.
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Spyhop - stick their head up and out of the water to look around.
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Pectoral slaps - seen when the animal is at the surface. The animal lifts its pectoral fin up and out of the water and then smacks it against the surface.
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No other word, just simply AMAZING!!!

Here was Tom waving at me from the lower deck of the catamaran.
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This was how close we were from the whales.
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